Parks and Recollection - Chris Pratt: Rock Show (S1E6)

Episode Date: October 19, 2021

Parks and Recreation may have had a short first season, but Parks and Recollection is just getting started and today we’re joined by superstar Chris Pratt! In “Rock Show” relationships come to a head and Mouse Rat concerts are preformed as our favorite show finds its voice. Chris opens up about his audition for Parks and Rec, working with Mouse Rat song writer Mark Rivers, adapting the character of Andy to a lovable loser, and so much more! Spread your wings and fly with your favorite podcast team today!Got a question for the Pawnee Town Hall? Send us an email: [e-mail] Or leave a 30-Second voicemail at: [phone])

We're getting together to talk about all the things we used to do The laughs, the passions, the little Sebastian's, the pits we fell into And we're putting it on in a podcast, then we'll send it up into the sky We're calling it Parks and Recollection Come on, little podcast Spread your wings and fly Well, well, well, here we are, everybody. Thanks for coming to Parks and Recollection. It's me, Rob Lowe, with the great Alan Yang.

What's up, everybody? Alan, this episode we're doing today, I got to tell you, Rock Show is literally unbelievable how all of a sudden in this episode, the show finds its voice. It's a lot of fun, right? It's a lot of fun. I got to ask you, and I'm dead serious. This isn't just because I'm co-hosting with you on a professional podcast. I really do need to know why.

Why is this so different? Why does this episode, it's only the sixth episode in the show. It's like, I mean, honestly, episode one honestly feels like the deer hunter compared to this. It's like an Antonioni movie. Yeah, a lot of people point to season two, right?

Like, yeah, it changed in between seasons. Like, season one's different than season two. But if you watch this episode, which is technically part of season one, you see a lot of the DNA of the show. And what struck me is just the joy and the energy of this episode, right? It just feels faster. A lot of that's due to our very special guest this episode, Chris Pratt. But yeah, there's just a joy and a sort of sense of fun that I think, you know, is building in the other episodes. Very quickly, I'm just going to read a synopsis. The episode is called Rock Show. It's written by Norm Hiscock

and directed by Mike Schur, aired on May 14th, 2009. And this is what happens in the episode. In celebration of Andy getting his cast off, the Parks Department is invited by Ann to a show that Andy's band Scarecrow Boat is playing. But before the show, Ann finds out his cast could have been off two weeks earlier, leading her to be furious with Andy. Everyone brings a date to the show aside from Mark, causing him to get drunk and hit on Ann. Ann rejects Mark and gets Andy to leave the venue to confront him about his behavior. Meanwhile, Leslie unexpectedly gets set up on a blind date by her mom with a much older man. Leslie continues the date out of politeness and eventually ends up the show with everyone else.

Mark and Leslie linger at the bar and flirt, eventually kissing at the pit. Andy and Ann fight and she attempts to break up with them. The episode ends with Mark falling into the pit after Leslie rejects his advances if the intention is that they remain casual. So a lot of stuff happening. We're so excited to have Chris Pratt here. We're going to be talking to him about what it was like to join Parks and Rec, the history of Mouse Rat, the making of the episode of Rock Show. And as always, we're going to close out the show by answering one of your fan questions in the Pawnee Town Hall. When you come and spend time in Parks and Rec Collection, you just don't know what you're

going to get. Sometimes you're going to have major motion picture stars just showing up, oh, by the way, and that's what we have with Mr. Pratt. So in all seriousness, the energy is way, way up. People seem to be having more fun making the show. Is that that they're just more comfortable that they've done six or five and they've got it under their belt? Yeah. I think it's just the process of making the show, doing the table read, shooting, getting the edits in, all of that stuff. And the realization, like this is where the show lives, right? This is the cast you have.

These are the writers you have. And yeah, you watch this one and it's just moving and people are laughing and smiling. There's a lot of music. Like all that stuff helps. Like all that stuff helps. Once again, the club is like, it's just kind of a different show. And I think, you know, I think Mike talked about this at some point. All shows do sort of calibration as they go.

And really, some people, again, some people think the break happens between one and two but honestly this one feels like the show and it's just the sixth episode so you think about it it's not that long until the show kind of finds a group it's groove it's almost like even going into the theme which is always lovely we love the perks and who doesn't love the perks and rec theme somebody said let's suck everything out of this that feels like an indie movie and just pedal to the metal and funny and this is when it happened yeah and it gets you know that cold open basically is andy gets his cast taken off and there's a bunch of garbage in there there's like toys and candy and like an ipod shuffle or something that's the era we were in right it's

like an ipod in there it's like a shuffle and at the end, he stands up and his legs are so weak, he falls over and you go right into the theme song. And it's almost like the theme song knew what the show was before we did, right? The theme song feels like the show. It's so upbeat and warm and happy. And that's what this episode is, right? It's like the other episodes were a little bit more quote unquote realistic or sort of more of a downer. And this one is like no everyone's up up up up you know aziz is is is less on sleeping pills like he said he's much more energetic um and then pratt of course we're going to talk about it later but he has this legendary talking head where he talks about all the band names and that's like you know that that was sort of a touch point for the you know a touchstone for the show where it's a lot of jump cuts and he just

you know rips off 50 jokes when he talks about his band names. Yeah. The jump cuts, that's the perfect example. Just because, you know, a show is made by performance. I mean, in no particular order, writing performance and production and the production of it's different. The jump cut within the talking head, I think is the first time that ever happened. I think, am I, am I right about that? It certainly feels like the first time you jumped within a talking head. Yes, absolutely. That's a, that's a huge thing. And, and, you know, I mean, I don't know, like you were having fun watching it, right? It's like, this is a different thing, right? It felt like Parks always felt to me when I would watch it where I couldn't believe it

was over when it was over. It just feels like, I just, I always, the one thing about Parks always is it felt like the fastest show on television. Yeah. You know, this change in tone is amazing on a lot of levels. First of all, a lot of shows don't get a chance

to survive six episodes where they're still figuring it out, right? So the show was blessed in that era, in that, in that area. And now you've got, you've got a chance to figure it out. And is that just a function of people, you know, the, you know, what, what is it just the actors going, Hey, I liked this in episode three, I like this in episode two. How does that happen on a show? I think it's a lot of factors and it starts from, by the way, flexible showrunners, right? You got to watch what's coming in. You got to watch what's working, what's not working as well.

And then, yes, definitely what suits the strengths of your cast and what you realize. You know, tone is such an ambiguous thing, right? It's this amorphous thing. What is tone? It's so many components when you're making a film or TV show, right? It's this amorphous things. What is tone? It's so many components when you're making a film or TV show, right? It's everything combined. And in this case, you know, obviously it's pacing. It's the, you know, frequency of jokes. It's the sort of level of groundedness. And in, in, in especially in this case, it's, it's kind of just how upbeat and happy some of the characters

are. Like, think about what Pratt brings to this episode or what disease brings to it and and you know honestly i think the cuts had started coming in right we had probably started watching some of the episodes dailies were coming in and it's like what where you're almost like a scientist right you're like figuring out what you're tinkering with your ingredients you're tinkering with this machine and seeing what works and what is sort of not working as well. And so I think by this episode, you know, editing is faster. You know, the actors are sort of getting more into their characters. And you see, look at the joy that there's a scene where Ron Swanson expresses joy, right? It's like that is, you know, he's with his ex-wife's sister, which is a hilarious bit. And I think it just started getting faster funnier more you

know a little bit more warmth a little bit more sentimentality and the characters and this sounds cheesy the characters start to love each other the characters start to love each other and this show ultimately is about sort of work family that loves each other that puts it in contrast with the office which is like oh we're in prison. We're in prison and we're in a gray hellhole and we have to deal with each other. And this show is more like, what if you got to work in a place where you liked your coworkers and you had a mission you all believed in and you're led by somebody who believes in her mission and is indefatigable. So all that stuff, I know that's a lot of ingredients, but all of that comes into play as you're writing the show,

directing the show, producing the show, editing the show, and finally shipping it out to the world. And this is the beginning of that, right? This is the beginning. So, you know, very exciting moment in the show. And I'm excited to watch the rest of these episodes with you and with our listeners, because it just builds and builds. And we'll see that. We'll feel the energy as we keep watching. The show is just sillier. Yes, 100%. It's just like there's a silliness. And by the way, Chris Traeger was nothing if not silly. So, but that starts to get set with, there's just this little bit where Leslie goes on to what she thinks is a dinner meeting. And the older guy thinks it's a date.

There's a runner in this. And it's just so genius for a number of reasons. But he tries to get her. It's just a little throwaway where he wants her to eat, try some of his food. And he's like, here it is. Chickie, chickie, chick, chicken, chick, chick. Just a chickie, chick, chicken, chick, chick. And it's just this really stupid, silly bit.

And it goes on and on and on and on. And it's so funny and dumb. Yeah. And it's, it's being more comedy forward. It's being more physical. It's being more visual and it's being faster. All of those things come into play. And, you know, obviously the cast sort of starts locking in.

You can't expect a cast member to be as locked into what they want to do and what the writers have in mind on day one, as opposed to day 30 of a shoot. I mean, it's just a different thing. And this one certainly, the other interesting thing about this episode is once you start figuring that stuff out, you as a television writer have to start moving chess pieces, right? So you want to arrange them in the way that sets up the dynamics and relationships you want. So some of the significant things that happen in this episode, Leslie starts getting over Mark, which builds her up as a character because she no longer has a crush on someone who isn't interested in her. So that builds her character. We have Anne have a come to Jesus moment about Andy. So that's starting

building up her character and it frees them up to start having other interests and plays into the dynamics of who they are. So it's sometimes very complicated to build a show that works because you might have five, six, eight, 10 moving parts in terms of characters and character dynamics. So this episode is not only really funny, it's really functional in that respect. And I think set us up for season two, where everything started clicking. Well, the other thing is you you guys as a staff and this is from really from mike sure and uh from at the top at this point mike's really writing a lot of looking at the show it's his purview is like you said they're flat you guys are flexible and not dug in not entrenched not

you know your way or the highway i mean there are plenty of showrunners who are like that. They're like, they, they don't want input or when there is input, they don't want to listen to it. You know, I've, I've lived it. And, you know, this is one of those, which I loved when I came in is like, you know, everybody, you guys just want your actors to win. You want your actors to be the best iteration of themselves. And it comes across. It absolutely comes across. And also, Mike Schur directed this episode, which is another thing that I think is interesting. It's probably no coincidence. Yes. And one thing that happens when you're the showrunner is you're absolutely swamped with work throughout a season. So it's difficult to direct while you're writing, right? Because you're the showrunner is you're absolutely swamped with work throughout a season. So it's difficult to direct while you're writing, right? Because you're writing, you're editing, and obviously shooting is going on. So he got to direct this one. He got to be on set. I remember

him being on set because I was on set for this episode as well. And getting to be there in person, that's why, as we've talked about, sort of the streaming show model versus the network show on streaming shows, I'm there for every second of every shot of the show from the first shot to the last. And I sometimes want to direct at least half the episodes, right? I just want to sort of be there for everything. You just get a little bit more control and you see the tone and you see what's working and look, no one knows the show better than Mike. It's ultimately his show and his vision. So he got to sort of input that on set as well as in the writing room and in the editing room. So that's all sort of part of it.

And yeah, like you said, we really valued the contributions of our actors on this. And you can tell by how the characters evolve and change to become in some ways more similar to the actors portraying them. You know, it's like we'd be fools. By the way, we'd be fools to not take input from Bowler or from Aziz or from you and Adam when you guys came in or Pratt or any of these actors are so funny and just knew what they were doing. So it was a very open atmosphere.

And I think it all went to the show's benefit for sure. I feel like Amy really found layers of Leslie in this episode that I always loved. And one of my favorite little bits is when she gets in that gear where even she is the most optimistic, can-do person realizes it's going to hell. when the guy starts talking, when she starts slowly realizing that this guy thinks it's a date, her sort of asides to herself make me laugh so hard. She's literally going, oh boy, okay. All right, okay, that's good. Mm-hmm, all right, okay.

Like that little, that thing that she does throughout the course of the show, this is the sort of first time you see it and just so funny. Some people you can't teach that. It's just like, you're funny deeply within your bones. Like you can't do anything not funny. There's some people like that. We all know some actors, right? Like some people in your life who are like that. It's just like, you can't do anything not funny. It's just always funny. And Polar is one of those people, right? Even when she does sort of the dramatic stuff, she's able to bring a lightness to it. And that's, you know, again,

another secret ingredient, secret, you know, weapon in the show is she can carry a lot of the storyline and, you know, being number one in a show, as you know, that's difficult. That's really difficult. You're in so many scenes, you're driving store, you're performing exposition, you're involved in all of these central relationships and be really funny. Yet you super tired you're in hair and makeup two hours before you know call time and or five in my case yeah exactly yeah exactly and and and so so really really impressive stuff and and again i feel like this is a springboard not to spoil the next episode the ponny zoo the first episode of season two but you know obviously there's a recalibration we start that up so there's a cold open and she's like rapping in the cold open. So it's just a different thing,

right? We see this episode and you see what is working and you just go after it, right? You just go after it. So, uh, yeah, just, it was exciting to watch. When, um, and I'm kind of, I'm kind of obsessed. It's, uh, Ron Perkins who plays George, the old man. Yes. At one point, he talks about his kids, and then that kind of grosses Leslie out, and then he talks about his grandkids. And that's, I think, where Leslie goes, oh my god, this guy's so old. And then he shows Leslie pictures

of the kids, and I'm telling you, one of them is Ryan Seacrest. I'm not making this up, right? I don't think it's Ryan Seacrest. I was freeze-framing it. I don't think it's Ryan Seacrest. Dude, I was freeze-framing it. I was freeze-framing it going, it's right. The middle picture in the guy's wallet, when he looks at it, listeners, look, one of us is right. Me or Alan Ye. Take a look. I think it's like

a few seasons ahead where we did the Michelle Wee thing and we kept sneaking her pictures into Councilman Jam's thing. What a weird bit. Oh, yeah, that he had a crush on Michelle Wee. Yeah, that's my favorite. So specific. God, I forgot about that. That's kind of an amazing bit.

An amazing bit. Very disturbing. Oh, very. No, we go to Councilman Jam's house, and he's got posters of her. Don't forget that. That's coming up. Yes. I remember now he's, like go to Councilman Jam's house. He's got posters of her. Don't forget that. That's coming up. Yes. I remember now he has, he's like wearing a kimono and stuff.

It's one of my favorite episodes ever. He's like a teppanyaki grill. Yeah, we'll get to that one. We'll get to that one. But yeah, no, the character of George Gurnway, the older man that Leslie goes on a date with is played by Ron Perkins, who happened to be the husband of one of our casting people, Nancy Perkins. But happened to be the husband of one of our casting people, Nancy Perkins. But he did a great job.

He was like, it was really funny, but not teetering into sketch, right? You're like, ah, you do kind of feel for this guy. And his talking heads were kind of good. His talking heads were like, yeah, it's going well. He was absolutely flipping fantastic in this. I was blown away at how funny he was. And that's the other thing about shows is when you do multiple storylines, A story, B story, C story.

Oh, wait, guess who just appeared on my screen? Who is that? Who is that? Yes. How are you? Hi, everybody. how are you hi everybody can you even think as you are now rescuing your family saving the world can you even remember a day when you were andy dwyer yes i can like it was yesterday wild that's not lost in your foggy memory i think some of it is there's a lot you know seven

years right and it was a period in my life that i was taking significantly less care of myself you know like i was there's a lot of brain cells were lost in that era and so uh i remember some of it um yeah rock show is the very it's really where you come into your own on the show. By the way, we've been watching these from the get go. This is the, this is the sixth episode of parks and recollection and thank you for coming on.

But dude, I'd never seen the shows. And so going back, going back and watching them, you are the only one. Yeah. From the minute you show up on the show it's like you you like blow off the screen for sure wow thank you i'm thanks i guess i it's it's in hindsight looking

at it it's right you came in in episode season three is that right season two yeah and a season two so yeah and so i watched rock show in preparation of this podcast just to kind of refresh my memory on it. And it was jarring that during the title sequence, it says, it shows everybody. And then it says, and special guest star, Chris Pratt. I was like, you're going to be on. You were going to be right now the show. Yeah. They were just like, yeah, he's here, but you know, don't get too attached because he's just a guest star um yeah it was wild i remember that that that that first season alan there was like

some turmoil right like he came out the pilot came out people were comparing it to the office and kind of like weirdly it was like we were all instantly on the bump. The pilot came out and people were like, okay, well, we're going to get canceled tomorrow. And it hadn't caught its audience yet. And it hadn't really found its rhythm yet as a show. But I remember halfway through the first season, we took a big hiatus, right? And there was like something happened. You guys went and reimagined maybe the show. And then when we came back it felt like there

were some shifts some changes and then i was like wait i'm gonna be in a rock concert in the final episode this is great so i think that maybe and it's you know surrounded by amazing people but i think there's always an adjustment period anytime a show is settling in and you're finding characters and of course this being a greg daniels mike sure thing people were inevitably going to be comparing it to the american version of the office and and so uh and and it's just a different show you know and that is a different lead and i think everyone was sinking into what was working and the character of andy was working probably because i was allowed to literally do whatever i want so it was like tailor this role to fit yourself because it's kind of a non-role just you have a little bit

of time to do whatever you want to be funny where everyone else was sort of adhering to the structure that was created for these characters before they were cast and sometimes when you're cast in a role that's written you're trying to conform to fit that role where with andy i always had the benefit of just allowing the role to just conform the role to fit myself yeah that character couldn't have changed more could not have changed more it was like a real he was like kind of a dickhead it was like this guy was a dick he was like really mean yeah and then we cast one of the most likable actors ever it's like no maybe this guy should be really likable. And then he was like, yeah, okay, why not? That's happened every time I've ever,

I just chose that I'm not, I don't have that much rate. Because every time, I remember back on Everwood, it was the same thing. I got cast as like the jock, bully, jerk brother. And about halfway through the first season, they were like,

we actually liked Chris more than we liked this character. So let's just turn the character into Chris and have it be the clown version of Chris. And that's what happened on Everwood. All of a sudden, halfway through, the jerk bully was like, you know what? He's got some redeeming qualities. He's nice. It's like, well, yeah, he's a dummy. But hey, you know, look at him.

He's a salt of the earth kind of guy. And so it felt like the same thing happened with Andy. You got to save all that material for my other podcast forever everwood my everwood recap podcast that uh i'll ask you to to be on that uh right after this yeah yeah that's great everwood material i'll just do a quick outfit change we'll jump right in we'll block record we'll block record though no but it really it really was like you know it was a testament to you i think we were literally talking earlier about how the theme song knew what the show was before we did. And I think you had some inkling of, well, this is fun.

What's fun for me might be fun for the audience. And so just to let the listeners in, yeah, originally the character of Andy was written to be like kind of someone who would be written off the show and would be like, hey, it's Anne's boyfriend. We don't like him. It's part of her personal growth to get rid of him. But sometimes in a show, when you have someone who's clearly scoring in the show and getting laughs, it's like, wow, we'd be idiots to let this guy go. Let's just have him in the show. And thank God we kept Pratt around. But think about this episode really changes the tone of the show. And part of it is because Pratt's in so much of it. He's in a lot of it. And it's like he has an energy. It opens with you doing physical comedy.

It closes with you playing the show. Right. And, you know, basically you and me carrying the show at the end. Yeah. Just really like. But, yeah, it's really fun. It's a really fun app. How the song The Pit did not become the anthem during COVID is a really missed opportunity.

I wasn't in the pit. I wasn't in the pit. You weren't in the pit. We all fell in the pit. Do you know what's the hilarious thing about this song? He goes, We all fell in the pit. Take down to the Paradise City grass. You know, that's the song.

It's actually Paradise City. It's the chord progression of Paradise City. Yeah, that drum fill is just Paradise City. It goes like, oh, it goes into it, man. We practiced that song a million times. We played it a million times. I love it. Do you remember that we went to that studio to practice it,

and then we played it live in the shoot man it was actually really fun i'd never i you know played guitar just recreationally for fun uh i guess did i say recreationally and for fun i think it's a little redundant um i played guitar not professionally and then we got to do a band practice and we became a band. And we had band practice and we rehearsed and we got to play a live party. We got to play that stuff live and then we got to play the rap party live. It was cool. Mouse rap became a real thing and it was really cool.

Mike Shore made me join the band because he was like, you were in a punk rock band when you were a kid, right? So I played a band when I was like 17. And he's like, it'll be really funny if you're just, you're just going to be in this one episode. Like you'll just be in this one episode. Like you'll play in the background. You'll be, you'll come to set this one time

and then Pratt will sing or whatever. It's easy. And then of course, Mouse Ride is in 15 episodes. So it's like, you got to keep going to set, keep learning the songs. But Pratt's right. Like the thing that was fun about it is we would actually learn the songs

and then we would play them at the rap party every year. Whatever five Mouse Ride songs we learned that year, we would play at the rap party so that was essentially all pretty much the same song one four five yeah yeah um and we're gonna have an album out now did you know about that i saw that yeah i saw that did you record that you recorded it while we were doing the show i guess i guess yeah it's mouse rap the awesome album it's all the songs that we did on parks and rec no one consulted me about it they're like no hey do you want to promote this album i was like what there's an album and then they were like yeah do you want to promote it and part of me is like yeah that'd be cool i'd love i've always wanted to have that be like that actor who has the vanity album you know i hope it gets a million copies and i get the the fucking the the platinum album on my wall but then on the other hand i'm like but you're not

gonna like i don't know how i'm gonna be compensated for this beyond the whatever i fifteen thousand dollars an episode i was making for the show yeah me neither like uh i think no i think i'm gonna say no a hard pass on promoting your album your album they didn't tell anybody they I don't think they told Mike. I don't know. I don't know. It just came out. It's the craziest thing. I was like, wait, what? I was like, I'm in Mouse Red. I didn't know about that. I just hope that Mark Rivers gets compensated because that dude is the heart and soul and brains and talent behind Mouse Red. So if anything, I would just advocate that Mark be taken care of because he did such a great job. Absolutely. Mark Rivers was the drummer in Mouse rat and he wrote pretty much all the songs and i think he recorded a lot of the tracks and like he would record a scratch crack and then

you know chris would sing the actual vocals but yeah he's a he's a really funny guy and he's a great musician and he wrote all these songs really complicated as we said gcd type songs but they are they are pitch perfect for what it is, right? They're pitch perfect for what it is. And in fact, if you go into the lyrics of the songs, which I think he would get credit for writing for the most part, they're brilliant pieces of comedic writing. I mean, I think there's one song. I don't know if there was a Mark Rivers song. Well, one song is called Two Birds Holding Hands.

And it says, Two birds holding hands, so much better than one. It's like the idea that birds are holding hands. It's this whole thing like we could fly through the ocean. Really good, bad lyrics. Of course,

every song includes the lyric spread your wings and fly. Spread your wings and fly is in every's spread your wings and flies in every chorus. It's in every, you know, that's just good writing. This episode's legendary for your talking head on band titles. Yeah. The listeners, that is Pratt riffing. I mean, yes, there were some written for him,

but then he started just riffing and ad-libbing and Mike Schur who directed it was smart enough to go, just keep going, man. Give me a bunch of them. What's your favorite one looking back on because i have mine uh we were three skin and then we got the base and soon we became four skin the he had a real suicide uh razor dick like anything that's new dicks i was laughing it's a it's a good run though i was really proud of that the truth is oh here here's the truth here's the truth behind that whole ad lib and it's really the truth behind all most of my ad libs on farks and wreck and anything that i've done in my life i think that ad lib some of it

just comes in the moment but i think that the best ad libs are the result of writing ahead of time and then hubris and and and the acting is actually pretending like you're coming up in the morning moment with the stuff that you're coming up with but you've thought about it way in advance so you have like five pages of material that you can write that list of band names was something i had written for the audition because i knew that the guy was a rocker guy and i just spent two weeks leading up to this audition at the time. It was a period in my life where the beacons in my life were the auditions that were coming up. So it was like, I have two weeks before that moment.

I would hyper-focus on that moment for the entire two weeks leading up to it. And so I had a whole list of all the names for the audition, hoping that I would have an opportunity in that audition to do some improv and to say the band names i never got to say them and then in the finale episode this kind of head talking head came up about the band name and i was like this is going to be great i'm gonna i'm going to uh i'm gonna maybe break out that list and then and it's like at the time it was like wow people you improv this is crazy you're coming up with this in the moment and you're like i i don't

don't even know what happened but you because you don't want to say like no i i wrote this because they'll be like okay leave the writing to us we're actually writers and you're just an act and so i think it's that's when that's where that really really came from well kind of like a dream come true to be in that moment and to do that run and have people laughing off camera and be like, holy shit, I got to do it. I got to do this for these guys. I got to do my comedy.

I got to do it. It was my clown. I've been building up that clown for like six months at that point. That was really cool. It's like really heartwarming because it's when opportunity meets preparation, right? You wanted something really bad and you put the work in and you have the talent.

So it's like all of that coming together. And like, you know, it was like, we had a couple names in there, but you know, so many of them were ones that you wrote too.

It's like, man, it's just, it's just really funny. And I totally forgot like how many there are. It's like, it's really like, it's like there's,

there's six of them that have orange in them. It's like the six of them have dick in them and six of them have orange in them everybody loves orange everybody loves orange that was yeah that was definitely a writer line i remember that that's the funny i wrote i think i i hate to i think i wrote nothing rhymes with blorange yeah that's it's like that is the third the third escalation it was like nothing rhymes with orange everything rhymes with orange nothing rhymes with orange. Everything rhymes with orange. Nothing rhymes with blorange. It's like seventh level joke on a joke.

Yeah. It really was. You're right. There were actually a lot. I'm remembering a lot of those were written. And then maybe it was just coincidence that I had also prepared a bunch for the audition and had this list going I remember it was like weirdly even before I thought it's like before you could have notes on your phone so I've had like a little notepad put on my Andy Dwyer that's crazy do you

remember your audition yeah oh I do I remember my auditions at cbs radford i remember walking up to you know i was supposed to play this guy who's like a loser boyfriend rock and roll guy who's kind of a scum you know he's the you know impetus for and getting into the parks department but then kind of disappears and everybody knew that when they pitched it to me they're like it's six episodes it'll be done it's a six episodes of tv special extras great so i like i made i was very intentional about staying up almost the whole night before to just really come in and be like a wreck because i thought that would be helpful and then so i went in and i remember there was an actor that i had worked with i won't say who it was but that I had worked with before who was auditioning for something and he was like Jesus man what's wrong with you like you look terrible I was like yeah I kind of

stayed up I was like kind of trying to do you know haha trying to do this method thing staying up he's like method more like meth head and I was like what a dick like it was like one of those moments like I went into i was like oh it doesn't make a mistake i shouldn't have i shouldn't have stayed up now i look like i'm a method and then uh i walked into the to the lobby and there was everyone there including uh you know people that i recognized that were comedic stars oh man here we go the nerves were kicking in and i went into the audition and for the audition they we started talking and i remember at the time i was playing a lot of grand theft auto and i had my friend curtis's house and a big funny thing that we would do

in grand theft auto is they gave us cheat codes and you could use a cheat code to spawn a boat and then take the boat around but if you spawn the boat in the middle of the city a boat could just fall into the road. So we should walk around. We were a little stone and we would walk around and just drop boats. We thought that was hilarious. And I thought that would be a really funny thing

for Andy to be doing. So in the audition, I just immediately started improv-ing and pretended like when she came home from work that I was playing Grand Theft Auto, dropping boats. And I was getting a big laugh. I remember watching your audition. I remember watching your tape. I knew it was like, oh,

this, you know, we watched a few tapes. It's like, yeah, I mean, this guy is so naturally funny. And again, it was probably like, this guy's a little bit too likable, but let's just cast him and see what happens. And then we just rewrote the character entirely. It's like, why not? Right? It's like, let's just, I mean, comparing this to like that version of Andy to obviously later in the run, it's so funny, man, because he just becomes the most likable character. let's just i mean comparing this to like that version of andy to obviously later in the in the run it's so funny man because he just becomes the most likable character it's just just an idiot who always has good intentions incompetent and confident the best that is that combination supremely confident yeah that's a great combination you can't go wrong comedically with that no you're right the irony is built in every time he smiles

it's funny because you're like you have no reason to be so happy idiot yeah i can't do simple math he like there's an episode where he's deciding whether he can he can date april and it's like i can't divide my age into like i don't want to divide what's like this is so troubling like oh man but yeah i i'm thinking back remembering like the table reads and stuff it's like I remember you coming in

and it's like ah who is this guy like you know like the cast is like some of them were like UCB people and stand-ups

and stuff like you were coming in drive a truck and like also the cast is tiny and you're massive

so it's like everyone in the show is like 5'10 and under and then Pratt comes in he's like 6'5 it's like who is this guy he's like he's got a lot of energy

and I just remember those table reads it's just a lot of fun you know it's like figuring out what the show was it was so fun it was and it was seven minutes from my house in la for that so yeah i would i would be like oh my call times in eight minutes i better go and i'd get in the car and just drive to work. I mean, going through the works with hair and makeup was a very fast process. Just basically like, yeah, okay. And then I would just go and it was great. I loved it. It was really, really special.

There's something so fun. I mean, how do you like doing comedy compared to doing drama and action and all this other stuff? You know, at the time you had less of a resume, but now you have so many things on your belt. I mean, you know, what are the pros and cons? What did you like about it?

The pros of comedy is you get to remove all vanity. You should if you're going to actually be funny. And so that's nice. The pressure is off in terms of what you look like. You get to be a clown. You get to clown around. In comedy, what's great is the response is immediate. You know, you have a barometer instantly to know

whether or not what you're doing is working. Because you have the crew members laughing, or you have the people behind the set laughing, or you have this own comedy compass on the inside. It's like, that's pointing towards funny. That works. With the drama or something something it's a little different because a drama the reaction to found work and profoundly shitty work is the same with silence so you don't have that immediate gratification to know with whether or not what you're doing

is working when you're doing drama because people just won't look at you and they're like he's he's in his process let's just leave him alone i don't want to mess with it is the same as oh my god how embarrassing like he is falling so flat on his face don't look at him you know what i mean so you don't know so there's that difference and then with action action is a lot more fun to watch than it is to make there are brief moments that are really cool and surreal you're on these giant set pieces just like just recently is that black hawk helicopter flying over me and i have a gun and i'm covered in blood and you know i'm running up and i look at the work it's physically exhausting and i might have like two lines and it might be something like over here and they're like go get down or

something you know what i mean those are the best days because it's like you don't have to do anything you're essentially a prop and it's those days that you feel like a prop and in that regard it's less fulfilling creatively but the end result the destination is more exciting to share yep because you everyone gathers around you look at this fucking thing we did it's amazing it's like 500 souls 200 million dollars all came together to create this thing that makes you look way cooler than you are in real life getting to do heroic shit you would never get to do in real life so that's the pro of of this big of these big kind of action uh films is the end result is amazing to be able to share to be a part of it and and the sad secret is making it is is pretty tedious and really boring make it yeah it's like it's a thousands of setups and like green screen and like it's just like it's just like. Yeah, it's like it's thousands of setups and like green screen and like,

it's just like all these setups. It's like, it's like, it's like the Taj Mahal were made of, you know, tiny mosaic tiles. You'd be like, oh my God, this is a 10 million piece puzzle. I can't believe it. Look at it. It must've been so fun to put together.

And you're like, no no it was not it was it took a whole day to place one tiny piece and then that was it you know so yeah it's so funny it's it's literally like we just shot a season of master none that was the opposite of that like it was just a straight drama no no action just put the camera down no coverage so it was just seven minute takes just acting just like almost like a play so you gotta cut you gotta come do something like that that's just totally opposite of an action movie right it's like seven minute takes it's just the acting you just cut it in and you just drop it in so that'll be fun to do you'll you'll do that at some point it'll be really i love yeah i'd love

i'd love to i'd love to it's been the best part has been being able to surprise myself and to try different things and to grow and do different things i've really liked that so the thing we're doing now terminal lifts is is unlike anything i've ever done before it's really dark it's art it's dark and kind of artistic and kind of fucked up and feels like jacob's ladder and it's like wow this is surprising there's a lot of but it's been uh the most fun i have in the process is to copy. Yeah. I mean, when people talk about what acting is,

I'm like, okay, so watch Pratt in, you know, as Andy, particularly maybe when you like, maybe when you were carrying me down the, there's a,

there's a picture on the internet of you carrying me where I look like, I look like a small baby and like i just love that you're able to work at at both ends of your range and people get to see you know that you can you got all the clubs in the bag it's fucking awesome that's pretty cool also to be clear the terminalist is a sequel to the mentalist right it's the same it's the same character i'm playing his character from the mentalist in an airport terminal oh yes it's it's a crossover between the terminal the tom hanks movie the terminal and the mentalist yes this is his country it's a yes but instead of the mentalist losing his passport or his country he loses his id passport and he has to live in

the terminal and exact revenge on the people who killed sam and you wrote the whole show this morning does that what happened yeah yeah okay so the whole season was this morning we wrote just before i just as i was figuring out how to work the quick time player to record my audio for this yeah well it's impressive it's impressive. It's impressive work. You're still a rock star. We know you got to go back to saving the world in Terminalist. So thank you for coming in our sixth episode, man. My pleasure.

We're number six with a bang with the great Chris Pratt. And hopefully you'll come back as we explore Andy Dwyer in depth as we continue. Sure. This has been a blast. I love seeing you guys. It's good to see you again. Yeah, great to see you again, Pratt. Shall we do the potty town hall? Let's go, let's go, right? So this is a segment where we take questions from you guys And this comes to us from Nicholas I absolutely love the pod, thanks so much for doing this My question is, do you think we would ever get a Parks Office reunion crossover?

Wow. A Parks Office reunion crossover. I would love it. Very good question, Nicholas. I'm there. I mean, who wouldn't be? I would love that. You know, I think, again, the decision has to be made by the two creators of the show, Greg Daniels and Mike Schur.

I don't know, man. My feeling is they never did it while the shows were on. And crossovers are always kind of dicey, right? It's always like, man, is it going to get weird? Sometimes shows have different tones. Obviously, it would be fun. I mean, you want to see Ron Swanson and Dwight Schrute talk to each other. You want to see Michael and Leslie talk to each other? I mean, I would say never say never, but I don't know the likelihood of either thing happening. I don't know, man. Maybe I should text Mike and Greg

and see if they're interested in it. But Nicholas, you need to find out the current president of NBC is, and you need to pick it and bang on pots and pans. We can have this, And I would do it. I'm there. Correll, you go to his house, you stand on Steve Correll's helipad and you're just like, man, we

need you back where you belong. What about you, Alan? Be fun for the fans. I know that Parks did kind of a COVID reunion thing that they shot in their homes over Zoom. And that was pretty fun. I know 30 Rock did one too, but man, a reunion crossover. It's almost like two different things

happening at the same time. But yeah, maybe we'll have Greg on and ask him about that and Mike too. They would probably deflect like I'm kind of doing now and just filibuster, much like Leslie in that first season episode.

That's right. And that's all we have for this episode. I hope you enjoyed listening. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and tell a friend. Thanks to producer Greg and producer Schulte. Goodbye from Pawnee. This episode of Parks and Recollection

is produced by Greg Levine and me, Rob Schulte. Our coordinating producer is Lisa Berm. The podcast is executive produced by Alan Yang for Alan Yang Productions, Rob Lowe for Low Profile, Jeff Ross, Adam Sachs, and Joanna Solitaroff at Team Coco, and

Colin Anderson at Stitcher. Gina Batista, Paula Davis, and Britt Kahn are our talent bookers. The theme song is by Mouse Rat, a.k.a. Mark Rivers, with additional tracks composed by John Danek. Thanks for listening,

and we'll see you next time on Parks and Recollection. This has been a Team Coco production in association with Stitcher.